A pair of Coens might as well be one at Toronto

TORONTO (Reuters) - There is a reason they are called the
Coen Bros., and not Joel Coen and Ethan Coen: they might as
well be one person.

Not only do they look similar, but they speak the same way
too, finishing each other's sentences and chipping in with
context when one might forget.

Joel, 53 and older by about three years, is a notch taller,
and his brown hair is longer. But both are bearded, both wear
glasses, and both admit people confuse them often.

"There was a time when people used to ask us to identify
ourselves each time we started speaking, especially if it was
on the phone," Joel told Reuters. "But that just broke up the
conversation too much."

The Coens, who won Oscars for best film, directing and
writing for 2007's dark crime drama, "No Country for Old Men,"
are at it again with a new movie, "Burn After Reading," which
had its North American debut the Toronto film festival late on
Friday.

The film marks a return to the madcap comedies such as
"Raising Arizona" and "The Big Lebowski" that gained them a
cult-like following, and it stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney,
John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton.

Pitt plays a hyperactive gym instructor trying to blackmail
a former CIA agent (Malkovich). Swinton is the CIA spy's icily
efficient wife, who is having an affair with two-timing "sad,
moronic dope" of a federal marshall portrayed by Clooney.

In a not-very-fast 94 minutes, there are misunderstandings
and mildly confusing plot twists and turns -- hallmarks of any
Coen movie.
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